Day 11

Winnipeg, Manitoba - It's the beginning of our third week of shooting. The production is 50 percent finished. It's hard to believe that we have already completed half the movie.

Today was an important day for the movie. This was the day when we recreated the 1985 Notre Dame versus Indiana game at (our version of) IU's Assembly Hall. Without giving away too many Hollywood secrets, let's just say that part of the magic of this film is that we were able to make 1,000 wonderful Winnipeg extras appear to be a full house.

Over the last few weeks, the production team of the film, led by the intrepid producer Lewin Webb, put the word out to the Winnipeg community that we needed volunteers to come out in red clothing to cheer on the Hoosiers against Digger Phelps's Fighting Irish. There were articles in the local papers, radio advertisements, TV spots and ads in all the Winnipeg newspapers and magazines. We had radio stations competing for donations to their Christmas charities by recruiting as many volunteers as possible. There was even a link to an ad on this Web site.

With prayers whispered the night before and fingers crossed, we all held our breath this morning hoping we would fill a few sections of the large arena.

And Winnipeg didn't disappoint us. Dressed in red shirts, hats and pants, out came the natives in big numbers. By 8 AM, we had at least 1,000 enthusiastic extras lined up behind the Indiana bench. Keeping the cameras trained on the characters in front of the sections that were filled with fans, we were able to give the impression that the whole arena was full. By moving the amenable red-clad fans from one section to another, there were always 1,000 or more Hoosier faithful in every shot. (Let's not tell anyone this little secret, okay?)

Did I mention that we were recreating Indiana's victory over Notre Dame? This game was the first big test for Knight's young team in 1985-86. They were facing a good Irish team, led by scoring sensation David Rivers and coached by the indomitable Digger Phelps. Now, normally in a movie, recreating a moment like this would just be another day at the office. But, this isn't any movie. Instead of a local actor portraying legendary Coach Phelps, we had (you guessed it) Digger himself.

Add a little Grecian Formula to his bushy mane and, once again, Digger becomes the Notre Dame chief from 1985. You've probably seen Digger in his role as basketball guru on ESPN and ABC. I'm sure he never imagined that he'd ever have to lose one of his games more than once. But, here we were asking him to lose to Knight all over again. Over and over and over. For me, it was a day of acting. For Digger it was a day of reliving one of his worst days as a Coach.

He was a terrific sport about it and even ran a mini basketball clinic for his Notre Dame "team." While delighting the crew with stories about Knight, Digger also spent time teaching Lewin Webb how to shoot a free throw. (Poor Lewin was raised in London and had never played basketball.) Like the Cheshire Cat, a grin exploded across Lewin's face as he sunk his first free throw (after about 20 attempts)!

Tomorrow, we're back at Assembly Hall for another Indiana victory...

Past Diaries

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10